Friday, July 01, 2005
Back from the exam with stuff to say 'bout SA
Block Test 2 is over! I got my results back, too... Not as good an improvement as the last time around, though... A measly B for Maths and C for Physics. And Fs for both Chemistry and Economics, of which the latter I probably scored the lowest in class. Of course, I didn't really study for the last two papers, so I guess I got what I deserved... Anyways, back to blogging...Have any of you out there wondered where the St. Andrew's Junior College mascot, the Stickman, the one on a lot of our school T-shirts, cafeteria pillars, wall murals, body tattoos, etc. come from?
Actually, I'm not sure, but here's probably a good place to start:
http://www.saintink.com/company/index.html
Notice the subtle similarities between the company logo and the Stickman, how they both are, well, stick drawings with haloes, and both have the same pose.
Originally, I wanted to say that the school ripped-off from the humble Malaysian company, but after discovering that SaintInk was established in 1999, I began to have my doubts on which institution started using the haloed stickman first.
There goes one conversation topic...
So, I'll start instead by commenting on the clichéd use of "Once a _____ always a _____" as one of the school's mottos. Probably one of the world's most overused slogans, considering that you can simply replace the underlined words with any noun and it'll still work, be it 'soldier', 'Scout', 'cheater', 'geek', 'duck-billed platypus' or 'lawyer'. In the college's case, 'Saints'.
And that's fifty points of originality for you!
After that, there's all this talk about the 'Saint's spirit'. Now what exactly is this spirit anyway? I understand that students should be, in a word, loyal, but is it necessary to give everything a name and sell it like a product, probably in the hopes of increasing enrolment? What makes the Saints spirit so much different from the spirits of other schools? Take this Wikipedia entry for Raffles Junior College, for example:
"There is a distinct school spirit, termed the Rafflesian Spirit, which bonds Rafflesians near and far, past and present, in common purpose and determination."
Thanks, but you have yet to tell me what the spirit exactly is, or how is it so distinct. In my secondary school (back home in Malaysia, of course), there is no such talk about school spirit (partly because if there was, it'd be called the SMKSJ-ian spirit, and that sounds real stupid), but a certain number of people are quite proud to be students there, though our school wasn't really well known. Which begs the question; is there really a need to claim that the school spirit of St. Andrews Junior College any different from that of other schools?
That's fifty more points for St. Andrews Junior College! Keep this up and you'll win a prize for ripoff!
Alright, maybe I'm just a paranoid cynic with too much time on my hands... But I have to give it to the college for certain things it does that are indeed one-of-a-kind. Take the Student Council Commendation ceremony just yesterday, for example. It's probably the most formal installation I'll ever see for a good number of years, complete with hymn-singing, a cathedral built to the same patron saint the school was named after, and an Anglican bishop acknowledging every councillor, personally. Now that's real originality for you~
And not forgetting too is the ultra-cool (so I'm a sucker for these things) school hymn! How many schools can you count having their own friggin hymns?! And soon, there's the Learning Festival too, of which I'll no doubt review my own experiences here.
[EDIT 18/7/05: According to my good friend, Hana, other Anglican schools in Singapore also hold their commendation ceremonies in the cathedral, and that St. Margaret's Secondary School also sings the same hymn, although differently. I apologise for my lack of knowledge on the matter. Now leave me alone to let me wallow in my ignorance.]
I'm sorry, SAJC, you just lost your chance at a winning the ripoff prize! Sorry folks, try again next year.
You see, I'm not one who would just bash my own school. I'm an objective person (at least, some of the time). I have to give credit to where it's due. Regardless of where the Stickman came from, I still wear that guy on my yellow T-shirt with a sense of cheesy pride; you have to face it, the T's simple and nice. But that doesn't mean that school has to be a walk down ripoff road, and that everything your principle and his/her board promotes has to be an uncreative cliché. People, take the pains and try to be original!
Oh, and to all you teachers, non-teaching stuff or student councillors reading this; if you're offended by this humble little post, you're too damn sensitive. A man's entitled to his own opinion, y'know, and there's no way you're going to deny me of that. But as they say, once a conservative, always a conservative.
D'oh!
